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Iran unleashed a barrage of missile strikes on Israeli cities early Monday, after Israel struck military targets deep inside Iran, with both sides threatening further devastation. AFP images showed gutted residential buildings in Tel Aviv and fires smouldering outside the coastal city of Haifa, after Israel’s army warned people to take cover from incoming Iranian missiles.In Jerusalem, an AFP journalist heard loud explosions, while footage showed Israeli air defences lighting up the night sky.After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war fought through proxies and covert operations, Israel’s surprise assault on Iran last week has touched off the most intense fighting yet and triggered fears of a lengthy conflict that could engulf the Middle East.Israel says its attacks have hit military and nuclear facilities, and killed many top commanders and atomic scientists — but a senior US official said Sunday that US President Donald Trump told Israel to back down from a plan to kill supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Trump has urged the foes to “make a deal”, but told reporters Sunday that “sometimes they have to fight it out” first.Monday’s Iranian missile attack followed Israeli strikes in central Iran, which Israel’s army said targeted surface-to-surface missile sites.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, in a statement quoted by the official IRNA news agency, said Monday they had “successfully” struck Israel and vowed “effective, targeted and more devastating operations” to come. Israel’s Magen David Adom emergency service said five people had been killed and 92 wounded following the latest Iranian attack. – ‘A heavy price’ -Residential areas in both countries have suffered deadly strikes since the hostilities broke out Friday, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slamming Iran Sunday for allegedly targeting civilians.”Iran will pay a very heavy price for the premeditated murder of civilians, women and children,” he said while visiting a residential building struck by a missile in the coastal city of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv.Iranian strikes since Friday have killed more than a dozen people in Israel.Iran’s health ministry reported at least 224 people killed and more than 1,200 wounded in Israeli attacks since Friday.Iranian state television reported at least five people were killed Sunday by an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in central Tehran.Colonel Reza Sayyad, a spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, threatened a “devastating response” to Israel’s attacks.”Leave the occupied territories (Israel) because they will certainly no longer be habitable in the future,” he warned in a televised address, adding shelters will “not guarantee security”.Addressing parliament on Monday, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian urged citizens to “stand strong against this genocidal criminal aggression with unity and coherence”.Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz later warned that Tehran’s residents would “pay the price” for Iranian attacks on Israeli civilians.Despite reports of people fleeing the Iranian capital, some were determined to stay. “It is natural that war has its own stress, but I will not leave my city,” Shokouh Razzazi, 31, told AFP.- ‘Make a deal’ -Trump said Washington “had nothing to do” with Israel’s bombing campaign but threatened to unleash “the full strength and might” of the US military if Iran attacked American interests.On Sunday, he urged the two foes to “make a deal” but expressed scepticism about the prospects for peace. “But sometimes they have to fight it out, but we’re going to see what happens,” Trump told reporters at the White House.A senior US official told AFP that Trump had urged Israel to drop a plan to assassinate Khamenei.”We found out that the Israelis had plans to hit Iran’s supreme leader. President Trump was against it and we told the Israelis not to,” said the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.Asked in an interview with Fox News whether regime change in Iran was one of the objectives of Israel’s strikes, Netanyahu said that “it certainly could be the result, because the Iran regime is very weak”. Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi maintained Tehran had “solid proof” that US forces had supported Israel in its attacks.He also told a meeting of foreign diplomats that Iran’s actions were a “response to aggression”.”If the aggression stops, naturally our responses will also stop,” he added. Iran scrapped planned nuclear talks with the United States, saying it was “meaningless” to negotiate while under fire.Iranian judiciary said a convicted agent for Israel’s Mossad spy agency was hung on Monday.Israel has said it had taken two individuals into custody over alleged links to Iranian intelligence.burs-tym/jsa

Growth in China’s factory output hit a six-month low last month as trade war pressures bit, official data showed Monday, while a bump in a key gauge of domestic consumption offered a rare bright spot for the economy.The United States and China this month agreed to a temporary truce in a standoff that saw tariffs hiked …

China factory output slows but consumption offers bright spot Read More »

A German court will rule Monday on the case of a Syrian doctor accused of crimes against humanity under former dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Alaa Mousa, 40, is accused of torturing detainees at military hospitals in Damascus and Homs on 18 occasions between 2011 and 2012, including setting fire to a teenage boy’s genitals. The accused is also alleged to have administered a lethal injection to a patient who had resisted being beaten, according to federal prosecutors.Prosecutors have asked judges at the higher regional court in Frankfurt to hand down a life sentence in the case, which comes to a conclusion after Assad’s ouster in December. The accused denies all the charges against him.Mousa arrived in Germany in 2015 on a visa for highly skilled workers at the same time as hundreds of thousands of Syrians were fleeing the civil war at home. He continued to practise medicine in Germany, working as an orthopaedic doctor until he was arrested in June 2020.A former employer told German media they knew nothing of his past in Syria’s military hospitals, and that colleagues described him as someone who was “unremarkable”.- Witness statements -According to prosecutors, Mousa worked at military hospitals in Homs and Damascus, where political opponents detained by the government were brought for treatment.Instead of receiving medical assistance, the patients were tortured and “not infrequently killed”, they said.In one case, Mousa is accused of pouring flammable liquid on a prisoner’s wounds before setting them on fire and kicking him in the face so hard that three of his teeth had to be replaced.He also allegedly doused a teenage boy’s genitals in alcohol before setting them alight.Other inmates were kicked and beaten, sometimes with medical tools, according to prosecutors.During the trial, the court heard testimony from colleagues and detainees, who said they recognised the accused, according to German weekly Der Spiegel.One former inmate said he had been forced to carry the bodies of patients who had died after they were injected by Mousa, Der Spiegel reported.Another witness said the military hospital where he was held in Damascus had been known as a “slaughterhouse”.At the opening of the trial in 2022, Mousa told the court he had witnessed beatings but denied striking patients himself.The accused however said he was too afraid of the military police “in control” at the hospital to speak out.”I felt sorry for them, but I couldn’t say anything, or it would have been me instead of the patient,” he said.Germany has tried several supporters of Assad’s regime under the legal principle of “universal jurisdiction”, which allows for serious crimes to be prosecuted even if they were committed in a different country.The first global trial over state-sponsored torture in Syria under the Assad government opened in Koblenz in 2020. The accused in the trial, a former army colonel, was found guilty of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in jail in 2022.

Israel unleashed a new wave of attacks against Iran on Monday, targeting missile sites after Tehran carried out deadly overnight strikes and both sides threatened more devastation.After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war fought through proxies and covert operations, Israel’s surprise assault on Iran last week has touched off the most intense fighting yet and triggered fears of a lengthy conflict that could engulf the Middle East.Israel says its attacks have hit military and nuclear facilities, and killed many top commanders and atomic scientists — but a senior US official said Sunday that US President Donald Trump told Israel to back down from a plan to kill supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Residential areas in both countries have suffered deadly strikes since the hostilities broke out, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slamming Iran on Sunday for allegedly targeting civilians.”Iran will pay a very heavy price for the premeditated murder of civilians, women and children,” he said, during a visit to the site of a missile strike on a residential building in the coastal city of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv.His remarks came hours after Iranian missile fire killed at least 10 people, according to authorities, pushing the death toll in Israel up to 13 since Iran began its retaliatory strikes Friday.Iranian state television reported at least five people were killed Sunday by an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in downtown Iran.Colonel Reza Sayyad, a spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, threatened a “devastating response” to Israel’s attacks.”Leave the occupied territories (Israel) because they will certainly no longer be habitable in the future,” he warned in a televised address, adding shelters will “not guarantee security”.Iran’s health ministry reported at least 224 people killed and more than 1,200 wounded in Israeli attacks since Friday.Israel has claimed strikes as far away as Mashhad in Iran’s far east, 2,300 kilometres (1,430 miles) from Israel, while a likely Iranian drone killed a woman in Syria, a Britain-based war monitor said, in what would be the first death on Syrian soil since the current hostilities between Iran and Israel began. The drone struck the woman’s home in western Tartus province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.The Israeli military said early Monday that it was striking surface-to-surface missile sites in central Iran, adding it was “operating against this threat in our skies and in Iranian skies”.- ‘I will not leave’ -A heavy cloud of smoke hung above Tehran after Israeli aircraft struck two fuel depots. Local media also reported an Israeli strike on the police headquarters in the city centre.”We haven’t been able to sleep since Friday because of the terrible noise,” said a Tehran resident who gave her name as Farzaneh. “Today, they hit a house in our alley, and we were very scared. So we decided to leave Tehran and head to the north of the country.”Some, however, were determined to stay. “It is natural that war has its own stress, but I will not leave my city,” Shokouh Razzazi, 31, told AFP.AFP images from the Israeli city of Haifa, meanwhile, also showed a column of smoke rising on Sunday evening following an Iranian missile barrage.The military said rescue teams “have been dispatched to several hit sites in Israel”, while the fire services reported rescuers heading to a building on the coast that sustained a “direct hit”.Earlier in the day, in Bat Yam, first responders wearing helmets and headlamps picked through a bombed-out building.”There was an explosion and I thought the whole house had collapsed,” said Bat Yam resident Shahar Ben Zion.”It was a miracle we survived.”- ‘Make a deal’ -Trump said Washington “had nothing to do” with Israel’s bombing campaign but threatened to unleash “the full strength and might” of the US military if Iran attacked American interests.On Sunday, he urged the two foes to “make a deal”, adding, however, that “sometimes they have to fight it out” first.A senior US official told AFP that Trump had urged Israel to drop a plan to assassinate Khamenei.”We found out that the Israelis had plans to hit Iran’s supreme leader. President Trump was against it and we told the Israelis not to,” said the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.Asked in an interview with Fox News whether regime change in Iran was one of the objectives of Israel’s strikes, Netanyahu said that “it certainly could be the result, because the Iran regime is very weak”. Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi maintained Tehran had “solid proof” that US forces had supported Israel in its attacks.He also told a meeting of foreign diplomats that Iran’s actions were a “response to aggression”.”If the aggression stops, naturally our responses will also stop,” he added. Iran scrapped planned nuclear talks with the United States, saying it was “meaningless” to negotiate while under fire.Iranian media reported Sunday that police had arrested two suspects over alleged links to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.Israel, in turn, said it had taken two individuals into custody over alleged links to Iranian intelligence.burs/ds/tym/lb

US President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Iran and Israel — who are locked in an exchange of military strikes — to “make a deal,” but suggested they might need to “fight it out” first. “I think it’s time for a deal,” Trump told reporters, as Israel and Iran exchanged a fresh barrage of missile strikes and threatened more devastation in a conflict that appeared to be intensifying.”But sometimes they have to fight it out, but we’re going to see what happens,” Trump said, speaking at the White House before heading to Canada to take part in a G7 summit.After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war fought through proxies and covert operations, the latest conflict marks the first time arch-enemies Israel and Iran have traded fire with such intensity, triggering fears of a lengthy conflict that could engulf the entire Middle East.It began Friday, when Israel launched attacks that have killed top military commanders and nuclear scientists, and struck military bases, nuclear sites and residential areas across the country.Trump refused to answer a question about whether he had asked Israel to pause airstrikes on Iran.Earlier, a senior US official told AFP that Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to assassinate Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that he believed the two sides “should make a deal, and will make a deal.”There are “many calls and meetings now taking place” on the issue and peace could be achieved “soon” between the longtime adversaries, he said.

Israel unleashed a punishing wave of strikes across the breadth of Iran on Sunday and Tehran hit back with fresh missile barrages, as both sides threatened more devastation in a conflict that appeared to be intensifying.After decades of enmity and a prolonged shadow war fought through proxies and covert operations, the latest conflict marks the first time the arch-enemies have traded fire with such intensity, triggering fears of a lengthy conflict that could engulf the entire Middle East.Israeli authorities told citizens to head to shelters in advance of incoming missiles Sunday, while Iran said it would begin opening mosques, metro stations and schools to serve as makeshift refuges as Israel kept up its withering strikes.Israel says its attacks have hit military and nuclear facilities, and killed top officers and atomic scientists, but a senior US official said Sunday that President Donald Trump had told Israel to back down from a plan to kill supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Meanwhile, residential areas in both countries have suffered deadly strikes since the hostilities broke out two days ago, with Netanyahu on Sunday slamming Iran for allegedly targeting civilians.”Iran will pay a very heavy price for the premeditated murder of civilians, women and children,” he said during a visit to the site of a missile strike on a residential building in the coastal city of Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv.The remarks came hours after overnight Iranian missile fire killed at least 10 people, according to authorities, pushing the death toll in Israel up to 13 since Iran began its retaliatory strikes Friday.More missiles followed over the course of the day, with the Israeli military saying in the evening that search and rescue teams were dispatched to “several” sites that were hit.Iranian state television, meanwhile, reported at least five people killed Sunday by an Israeli strike that hit a residential building in downtown Iran.Colonel Reza Sayyad, a spokesman for Iran’s armed forces, threatened a “devastating response” to Israel’s attacks.”Leave the occupied territories (Israel) because they will certainly no longer be habitable in the future,” he warned in a televised address, adding shelters will “not guarantee security”.Iran’s health ministry reported at least 224 people killed and more than 1,200 wounded in Israeli attacks since Friday.On Sunday, Israel’s military said its air force hit Mashhad airport in Iran’s far east, making it the longest-range strike of the conflict, with the target “approximately 2,300 kilometres (1,430 miles) from Israel”.An Israeli strike also killed the intelligence chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, Mohammed Kazemi, along with two other officers, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.- ‘I will not leave’ -A heavy cloud of smoke hung above Tehran after Israeli aircraft struck two fuel depots there. Local media also reported an Israeli strike on the police headquarters in the city centre.”We haven’t been able to sleep since Friday because of the terrible noise,” said a Tehran resident who gave her name as Farzaneh. “Today they hit a house in our alley, and we were very scared. So we decided to leave Tehran and head to the north of the country.”Some residents, however, were determined to stay put. “It is natural that war has its own stress, but I will not leave my city,” Shokouh Razzazi, 31, told AFP.AFP images from the Israeli city of Haifa, meanwhile, also showed a column of smoke rising on Sunday evening following an Iranian missile barrage.The military said rescue teams “have been dispatched to several hit sites in Israel”, while the fire services reported rescuers heading to a building on the coast that sustained a “direct hit”.Earlier in the day, in Bat Yam, first responders wearing helmets and headlamps picked through a bombed-out building after a deadly overnight strike.”There was an explosion and I thought the whole house had collapsed,” said Bat Yam resident Shahar Ben Zion.”It was a miracle we survived.”- ‘Make a deal’ -Trump said Washington “had nothing to do” with Israel’s bombing campaign.But he also threatened to unleash “the full strength and might” of the US military if Iran attacked American interests, later urging the two foes to “make a deal”.A senior US official told AFP on Sunday that Trump had urged Israel to drop a plan to assassinate Khamenei.”We found out that the Israelis had plans to hit Iran’s supreme leader. President Trump was against it and we told the Israelis not to,” said the US official, speaking on condition of anonymity.Asked in an interview with Fox News whether regime change in Iran was one of the objectives of Israel’s strikes, Netanyahu said that “it certainly could be the result, because the Iran regime is very weak”. Iran’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi maintained Tehran had “solid proof” that US forces had supported Israel in its attacks.He also told a meeting of foreign diplomats that Iran’s actions were a “response to aggression”.”If the aggression stops, naturally our responses will also stop,” he added. Iran scrapped nuclear talks with the United States planned for Sunday, saying it was “meaningless” to negotiate while under fire.Iranian media reported Sunday that police had arrested two suspects over alleged links to Israel’s Mossad spy agency.Israel, in turn, said it had taken two individuals into custody over alleged links to Iranian intelligence.burs/ds/smw/rlp